Breastfeeding mums should feed their babies anywhere they like

Mums shouldn’t be forced to only breastfeed at home, in the toilets or in some dingy parents’ room. If that means they sit at the back of a shop feeding, then so be it, writes Susie O’Brien.

Gizem and Lila from Taylors Lakes

Breastfeeding mums should feed their babies anywhere they damn well like.

They shouldn’t be forced to only breastfeed at home, in the toilets or in some dingy parents’ room.

Mums should be able to bung their bub on their boob wherever or whenever they need to.

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If that means they sit at the back of a shop feeding, then so be it.

It’s ridiculous that a clothing store at Werribee Plaza refused a new mum’s request to discreetly breastfeed her three-month-old daughter while she watched her aunty and grandmother try on clothes.

Gizem Staveley was told by a worker at Danielas, a women’s clothing store, that she couldn’t feed her baby because “men also walked in the shop too”.

I love that local mums have organised a “group boobing” protest feed in response. It’s not a sit-in, it’s a tit-in.

Breastfeeding is natural and should be welcomed anywhere — on the floor of parliament, on public transport, at work or in a café.

Let’s trust mums to make the right decisions for their own kids.

Of course, it’s not always easy. I remember once needing to interview the national head of KFC for a piece about teenage worker exploitation. The phone call came through while I was in a shop in Camberwell, waking up my one-year-old son. I ended up doing the interview while feeding him. This meant I had to cradle him with one knee and arm, stand on one leg, hold the phone with my chin and scribble notes on the back of a shop docket with an eyeliner pencil. Sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

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Trust me, mums feeding babies don’t get a kick out of flashing their milk-engorged breasts to the world. Most take great pains to be discrete and minimise the chance of a nip slip. As Ms Staveley pointed out, her aunt showed more flesh trying on a low-cut dress.

I can’t believe that there are still people out there that think breastfeeding is somehow shameful and needs to be done in private.

It’s not shameful, it’s natural. It’s the simplest, cheapest and most nutritious way for babies to be fed.

Life as a new mum is hard enough; the last thing they need is to be stuck at home because a flash of breast may offend someone.

Sadly, stories like this put other women off breastfeeding. We know that fear of embarrassment is a key reason why only 39 per cent of Australian women exclusively breastfeed to four months and only 15 per cent to six months. This is despite a recommendation that babies are exclusively breastfed until six months when solids are introduced, and breastfeeding continues until 12 months and beyond.

This is partly because there is an assumption that breastfeeding women are somehow doing something dirty or kinky, when in fact they’re just giving a baby a meal.

You wouldn’t want to eat in a toilet, would you? So why should a baby?

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